


The Time Luke Was Broken

by Eggward_the_3rd



Series: Time After Time [1]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Broken Bones, Concussions, Fluff and Angst, Injury, Luke Patterson Needs a Hug (Julie and The Phantoms), Ouch, Pre-Canon, Protective Alex Mercer (Julie and The Phantoms), Protective Bobby | Trevor Wilson, Protective Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:27:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29482923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggward_the_3rd/pseuds/Eggward_the_3rd
Summary: “Really?!” cried Luke, rushing for the stairs. In his hurry, he missed the second step from the top. Alex and Reggie could only stare in horror as, almost as if in slow motion, Luke fell forward. He slid down the stairs on his stomach and landed with a thump that couldn’t cover the sickening crack that seemed to echo through the room.When Luke gets hurt at rehearsal his boys are there to take care of him.
Series: Time After Time [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157372
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	1. The Fall

It was a normal Saturday, which, for Sunset Curve, meant a full day of rehearsal. The three boys were jamming to Luke’s latest masterpiece. It was a slightly new sound for them, and even though they were still learning, everyone could tell this was going to be a hit. They ended up throwing open the studio windows to let their music flow out into the street, letting out some of the dust at the same time. Their studio was basically housing three teenage boys after all, which inevitably led to a certain smell.

“Dude, that was awesome!” said Reggie enthusiastically as they finished off the final instrumental.

“Yeah! Luke, I seriously think this is some of your best work!” added Bobby.

Luke flushed and grinned, trying his best to look humble, but he knew the song was good. Luke put down his guitar gently in its stand and grabbed a bottle of water. The others put down their instruments too, and, as they did, Luke tossed them each a water.

“Gotta take care of our voices, drink up,” Luke said.

“I’m starving,” said Reggie, “Got anything to eat, Bobster?”

“Yeah, I’ll get us something from inside,” said Bobby, already on his way out.

“Man,” started Alex, dragging a hand through his sweaty hair, “I can’t believe how hot it is today.”

“Totally,” said Luke, “I heard it’s supposed to be like this all week.”

Reggie and Alex both groaned in response. Summer was great, really. It meant more time for band practice and a lot less pressure, but the heat was something they could all do without. 

“What do you want to do now?” asked Alex, flopping down on the couch.

“Well, there was this other song I started last night, but I’m stuck on the bridge,” Luke replied, grabbing his songbook and passing it to Alex. Reggie peered over his shoulder and began mumbling the lyrics. While they worked, Luke made his way up the loft stairs. He had sweat right through his shirt and wanted to change. It took him a while to find his stuff as it was buried under some of Reggie’s. 

“Luke, get down here, dude! I think I figured out what to do with the bridge!” He heard Reggie call. 

“Really?!” cried Luke, rushing for the stairs. In his hurry, he missed the second step from the top. Alex and Reggie could only stare in horror as, almost as if in slow motion, Luke fell forward. He slid down the stairs on his stomach and landed with a thump that couldn’t cover the sickening crack that seemed to echo through the room. In an instant, both boys were by his side. 

“Luke!” Alex cried desperately, crouching beside him. Luke groaned and rolled off of his front, looking up at his friends. Alex was quick to notice his pale complexion and the way he held his left arm close to his chest. 

“Dude! Are you okay!” said Reggie, looking almost as pale as Luke. Luke shook his head, closing his eyes tightly. His whole body ached, but he barely noticed it in comparison to the burning pain in his arm. Alex gently lifted Luke’s head so it rested on his lap, running his hands gently through Luke’s hair. 

“Where does it hurt,” Alex asked, already anticipating the answer. 

“My arm,” groaned Luke as involuntary tears leaked past his closed eyelids and down his cheeks, “and… and my head.”

“Let me see,” said Reggie quietly, moving Luke’s uninjured arm gently away from where it covered his left. He hissed and paled a shade further as he took in the unnatural angle of the arm. 

“Dude, we gotta go to the hospital,” Reggie whispered to Alex, not wanting to upset Luke anymore. Luke’s breathing was heavy, and he looked about a second away from throwing up.

“Go get Bobby. He can take us in his van.” Alex whispered back. After muttering a few assurances to Luke, Reggie stood and bolted out of the studio. He nearly crashed into Bobby on the driveway in his hurry.

“Whoa, Reg, where’s the fire,” joked Bobby, not yet noticing the panic on his friend’s face.

“It’s Luke!” said Reggie, sounding on the verge of tears. Instantly all traces of a smile were wiped from Bobby’s face.

“What’s Luke?” he demanded anxiously.

“He...he fell… from the loft, and I think… I think… his arm is broken… and you...and, and…” Reggie stumbled over his words, panic overtaking him.

“Crap,” ground out Bobby, dropping his collection of snacks and running back inside for his keys. In a moment, he and Reggie were both running into the studio. The sight that met them was not pretty. Alex still had Luke’s head in his lap, but both his hands were holding Luke’s shoulders firmly in place. Beneath him, Luke was twisting and thrashing, the excruciating pain evident on his face. 

“Luke, please, buddy, you need to stay still. Please, I don’t want you to make it worse.” Alex pleaded, his eyes filling with tears as he watched his friend struggle.

“Alex, it hurts,” Luke whined, “It hurts so much.”

“I know, I know, but please just stay still. We’ll get you help, I promise.” Alex glanced up then and noticed Reggie and Bobby rushing towards them. “Oh, thank goodness! Bobby, get the door, Reg help me get him to the van.”

The boys did as they were told. 

“Luke, we’re gonna help you up now, okay?” said Alex gently. Luke nodded weakly, bracing himself for the pain. As carefully as possible, Reggie and Alex guided Luke to his feet, doing everything in their power to avoid his injured arm. The movement was too much for Luke, though, and he swayed where he stood. 

“You good?” said Reggie, supporting him by his shoulder. In response, Luke leaned forward and vomited all over the ground.

“Okay, easy, buddy,” said Alex, who had his arm around Luke’s waist. 

“Mm, sorry,” mumbled Luke.

“Don’t worry about it, c’mon, let’s just get you in the van, okay?” said Alex, stepping to the side so they could avoid the sick on their way out. As soon as Reggie and Alex had eased Luke into his seat and done up his seatbelt, they ran around the van and hopped in. The moment their doors were closed, Bobby had his foot on the gas and was peeling out of the driveway.


	2. The Hospital

On the drive, Luke closed his eyes and rested his head against the window. He was so exhausted, and the pain was too much. He wished he could just pass out.

“Luke,” Alex said sharply from in front of him, “Don’t fall asleep!”

“Why can’t he sleep?” said Reggie nervously, poking Luke gently to keep him awake all the same. 

“Because he could have a concussion,” said Alex sitting on his hands to stop their shaking. 

The drive, which should have taken twenty minutes, only took ten, and Bobby ignored every stop sign and well surpassed the speed limit. His knuckles were bone white from his grip on the steering wheel, and the only glance he spared from the road was to look occasionally at Luke. Normally, Alex would have told him it was better to get there a little later and alive than to die on the way but, seeing Luke’s pained expression in the rearview, he held his tongue. 

When they arrived out front of the ER with a screech of the brakes, Alex threw open his door and promptly did the same to Luke’s. He had to catch his friend who had been leaning on the window and all but fell out of the van. While Bobby went to park, Reggie and Alex carefully guided Luke inside, luckily this time, he made it without getting sick.

“Can someone help us please!” cried Reggie as they stumbled in. Luke was barely holding himself upright at this point. A nurse rushed around the front desk and signaled to another to bring a gurney over. They helped his friends lower him onto it. 

“What happened,” demanded one of the nurses.

“Well, we were at rehearsal, and it was really hot,” Reggie began. 

“She doesn’t need the whole story Reg!” Alex said, his tone unintentionally harsh, “He fell from the top of some stairs,” Alex supplied instead. 

“Do you know if he hit his head?” asked the nurse.

“I don’t know, but he said his head hurt.”

The other nurse who had been tending to Luke asked his name. Luke frowned for a moment like he was trying to remember, then managed to mutter it out correctly. The nurse looked to his friends for confirmation, and they nodded. At this, she shot them a reassuring smile and began to wheel the gurney away. 

“Where are you taking him?” said Reggie, sounding like a frightened child. Alex grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Before the nurse could answer, Bobby came bursting through the doors and ran over to them.

“Okay,” the remaining nurse said while the other moved deftly through a pair of swinging double doors marked ‘Medical Staff Only,’ taking Luke out of sight. 

“We’re going to get your friend a CT scan, rule out any other serious injuries, and we’ll come see you guys after,” she smiled reassuringly at them. She flagged down a passing man in a white coat who stopped next to them. 

“Will you take these boys to the waiting room, please?” the nurse asked kindly to the short, blonde-haired man.

“Of course, follow me,” he said, putting one arm out as if corralling them. 

Reggie frowned as they moved in the opposite direction of where Luke disappeared. He opened his mouth to argue, but Alex squeezed his hand again and shook his head ever so slightly. Resigned, the boys followed the man into the cold and sterile waiting room.

They sat for only a few moments, trying their best to stay calm and comfort each other before another nurse approached them with a clipboard in hand.

“Luke Patterson?” he asked, stopping a few feet away from their small group. They all stood, nodding as they tried to read the nurse’s expression for good or bad news. Their questions were quickly shut down as the man addressing them continued.

“Are you his family?” 

“Practically,” said Reggie under his breath as Bobby and Alex shook their heads. 

“Okay, do you know his parent’s or guardian’s contact information?” 

“Yeah,” said Alex, rattling off Patterson’s home number. The nurse nodded and wrote it on his clipboard. 

“Is Luke okay?” Demanded Reggie impatiently.

“I’m not allowed to share any patient information for a minor without his parents present.” said the nurse, “but he’s getting the very best care possible,” he added placatingly, seeing the panic on the young boy’s faces. 

“If you’d like, you can wait here, and when his parents arrive, I can tell you more. In the meantime, it would be helpful if you could fill this out to the best of your ability.” He said, handing over a small stack of paperwork. With that, the nurse turned and left, presumably to call Luke’s parents. 

The boys shared a nervous look before sitting down again. Bobby looked over the paperwork for a minute and quickly determined he didn’t know how to answer more than a few of the questions. Realizing this, he passed it along to Alex, secretly hoping that having something to do would calm him as well as being helpful. The last thing they needed right now was for Alex to have a panic attack, and Bobby could tell from his breathing he wasn’t far from one.

A few hours later, the boys, along with Luke’s frantic parents, were being led to his hospital room. They had been informed that Luke did have a mild concussion, and his arm was broken in two places. The nurse said that Luke was awake but very drowsy and would likely not be very coherent because of the pain medication he was on. Upon entering the room and seeing Luke looking far too small and vulnerable in the hospital bed, Emily burst into tears and rushed to her son's side.

“Oh, Luke,” she sobbed, brushing his hair out of his face. Mitch came up beside her, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“How you doing, sport?” 

“Mm, fine,” said Luke, his eyes only half-open. “I’m so good, so so good… so so so so good…”

Reggie let out a wet chuckle at that. Luke, it seemed, was high as a kite. Shaking his head affectionately, Alex stepped closer to the bed, placing his hand gently on Luke’s shoulder. 

“Why are you crying, momma?” Luke said, his eyes widening comically as he looked at her.

Emily chuckled a little, wiping her eyes. “Because I’m just silly like that, baby.”

Luke furrowed his brow for a second then beamed at her. His smile seemed to break the tension in the room. In synch, five sets of shoulders dropped away from their owner’s ears. 

“Cool cast you got there,“ Bobby said. “Did they let you pick the colour?”

“Mmhhm,” replied Luke drowsily, “I love blue, I love it better than nobody else.”

“Okay, bud.” said his dad, patting him on the leg, “how about you go back to sleep now?” he added, seeing Luke’s lion-like yawn. 

Luke looked at him blearily, then nodded slightly and let his eyes slip shut. His breath evened quickly, and the group sat themselves around his bed. Before long, Reggie was asleep with his head on Alex’s shoulder, and Alex was asleep with his head on Bobby. Emily and Mitch exchanged an amused look with Bobby before excusing themselves to see a nurse about some more paperwork that needed to be done.


	3. Healing

Two weeks later, Luke threw his notebook angrily at his bedroom door. He groaned and flopped down onto his bed, hissing in pain, and he bumped his broken arm. Two weeks so far, he hadn’t been able to play guitar, and it was driving him crazy. Ever since he first played, he hadn’t gone a day without it, not even when he was sick. But now, he physically couldn’t, and with the remaining headaches from his concussion, he was struggling to read his page well enough to write. Just as Luke was really getting into his pity party, he heard a knock at the front door. He ignored it, rolling over, so his back faced the bedroom door. Luke knew it was his friends, they had been coming over everyday since his accident, but he didn’t feel like seeing them. Right now, they were just a painful reminder of how his summer was being wasted stuck at home instead of jamming together as they planned.

“Luke!” yelled Reggie eagerly, being held back from jumping onto the bed by an exasperated Alex.

“Dude, you wanna break his arm again?” Alex said sharply. Reggie flushed and shook his head before sitting down much more calmly.

“What’s up, man?” Reggie said, noticing Luke’s sour mood as he kept his back towards them. 

“Nothing,” mumbled Luke into his pillows.

“Mmm, convincing,” said Alex drily. “C’mon, dude, sit up,” he said, gently nudging Luke out of the way. With a heavy sigh Luke sat up, still pouting, and leaned against the headboard of his bed.

“No Bobby?” said Luke tiredly.

“Nah, he had a family thing.” 

Luke nodded at this before drifting back into his thoughts. The truth was, Luke, didn’t know what to be without music. It had become his identity, his connection to the world and to himself. Sure, he could listen to some music right now, although not very loudly, but making it was something different entirely. It was the only way Luke knew how to express himself, and without it, he felt like there were ants crawling beneath his skin.

“Alright, enough is enough,” Alex said, interrupting his train of thought. “I’m sick of the moping.”

“I’m not moping,” said Luke grouchily.

“Pouting, then.”

“I’m not pouting!” Luke said, trying to school his face into a more neutral expression.

“You kind of are, dude,” added Reggie. Luke shot a glare at him, but he just shrugged.

“Listen, I know it sucks that you can’t play right now, but this isn’t healthy.” Alex said, “You’ve barely left your room in two weeks, and honestly, it kind of stinks in here.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?” cried Luke passionately, “I’m not allowed to go anywhere crowded or loud for at least another week, and I can’t play music, and I can’t think of anything good to write because I can’t work the melodies properly without my guitar!”

“You can have fun without music, Luke,” Alex said gently. He understood the importance Luke put on music, but this seemed a bit much.

“I really can’t, Alex,” Luke replied, sounding unexpectedly serious. Reggie and Alex glanced at each other, surprised by his tone.

“Sure you can,” said Reggie, attempting to be comforting. 

Luke shook his head and shut his eyes. 

“Luke, what’s really going on?” Alex asked softly.

Luke took a deep breath before whispering, “What if I can never play right again?”

“What?” said Reggie and Alex at the same time.

“What if my arm doesn’t heal right, and I can never play like I used to?” Luke whispered, his eyes still shut. He looked so vulnerable at that moment that both of his friend’s hearts broke.

“Of course, you’ll be able to play again,” Reggie said, grabbing Luke’s uninjured hand. 

“You can’t know that,” Luke said, opening his eyes to stare directly into Reggie’s. 

“Maybe not, but we know you.” said Alex, “and you’re stubborn enough to make things work.”

“I just…” Luke’s voice broke, “I’m nothing without music.”

“Luke,” Reggie sighed softly, not knowing what to say.

“If I can’t play, what do I have left? I… I put everything into the band. I just, I don’t know what to do.” Luke finished with a slight sob. 

Reggie and Alex moved at the same time to carefully pull their friend into a hug. They didn’t know what to say. They had figured Luke was just frustrated with not being able to play, and neither of them had suspected that fear rather than annoyance was the cause of his sour mood. It was a question they weren’t immediately sure how to answer, who was Luke Patterson without his music?

After a long moment’s thought, Alex had formulated at least a bit of a response. “You’d still be you, Luke,” he started, choosing his words carefully, “even without music, you’d still be you.”

“I don’t know who I am,” Luke confessed tearfully.

“I’ll tell you. You’re my best friend, my rock. You’re passionate and crazy and so so full of love that everyone who meets you can feel it,” Alex stated confidently. Luke sniffed but didn’t reply. “I’ll tell you what else, you light up a room, Luke. You’re… you’re bright! You shine so brightly, and you don’t even know it. That’s not the music Luke, that’s you.”

“You’re my best friend too!” chimed in Reggie, getting into the pep talk spirit, “You’re so brave and protective, and sometimes I wish I could be more like you. You make me brave.”

“Yeah, me too.” Alex said, “You inspire me to try new things. You’re just… you’re you, and yeah, your music is amazing. I know it’s a huge part of your identity, but you’re more than that, Luke.”

By now, Luke was full on weeping. Holding tightly to the boys he loved so much. They held him back, knowing he needed time for their words to sink in. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, they could be right. He was still terrified, but he could now at least realize that he would still be something without his music. Eventually, his sobs faded to the occasional sniff, and he pulled back, running a hand over his face. 

“Thanks, guys,” he muttered, “For what it’s worth, you make me better too.”

“We know,” joked Reggie, shoving Luke’s shoulder gently. It earned him a weak smile, and he took it as a victory. They sat for a while in silence and, for once, it didn’t make Luke uncomfortable. He was just as stuck on music as ever, but something had come loose in him; there was a weight he didn’t know he had been carrying lifted off his shoulders. 

“C’mon,” said Alex standing up and holding out his hand for Luke. 

“Where are we going?”

“To get some ice cream. Maybe we can watch the sunset from the pier,” Alex replied, already heading towards the door. Reggie grinned, ice cream was one of his favorite treats, so he bounded happily out the door ahead of Alex. Luke hesitated a moment before standing to follow his friends. He paused and picked up his notebook and a pen as he headed out. Alex shot him a knowing look but didn’t say anything. 

They had a great time that evening. Somehow to Luke the ice cream tasted sweeter than usual, he felt the breeze more intensely, even the sun seemed to be shining extra brightly just for him. He sat between his two best friends at the end of a weathered dock, notebook open on his lap. He reflected on what his friends said earlier that day. About how he made them better, and he thought of all the ways they made him better too. Then he thought of what Alex had said, he had called him bright. But it wasn’t just Luke, the three of them, they were bright together. So he wrote, for the first time in weeks he wrote and it wasn’t forced or stilted, it was just him, as natural as breathing. Reggie and Alex smiled at each other over his head but elected not to say anything, both turning instead to watch the sun sink into the horizon. Things would be alright, they figured, as long as they had each other.


End file.
